Steve Lukather slams “weird” Rivers Cuomo over Weezer’s Africa cover: “I think he did it to take the piss… and it blew up in his face – now he’s got to play it every night”
Back in 2018, a Twitter campaign successfully convinced Weezer to cover Toto’s timeless hit, Africa. In response, Toto decided to join in on the fun, releasing their own cover of Weezer’s Hash Pipe. However, Toto’s Steve Lukather doesn’t look back on the exchange too fondly.
On the latest episode of the New & Approved podcast, when host Matt Pinfield talks about Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo “loving” Africa, Lukather is quick to correct him. “I don’t know about him loving the song, man,” he laughs. “I don’t think that’s the case at all.”
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In Lukather’s opinion, Weezer’s cover wasn’t done in good faith. But, thankfully, Toto had the last laugh. “I think he did it to take the piss out of it and it blew up in his face,” he says. “Now he’s gotta play it every night!”
Considering how the cover came about, it’s pretty clear the cover was intended as a joke. Twitter users hounded the band from December 2017 right up until the release of Weezer’s cover in September 2018. Fans used the hashtag #WeezerCoverAfrica, spurred on by user @WeezerAfrica who was leading the campaign.
The movement was kickstarted by a simple tweet directed at Cuomo, reading: “@RiversCuomo it’s about time you bless the rains down in Africa.”
@RiversCuomo it’s about time you bless the rains down in africa
— weezer cover africa by toto (@weezerafrica) December 6, 2017
Vice’s Noisey interviewed the user, revealing her to be a 14-year-old named Mary. When asked why she wanted Weezer to cover the track, she said that “it was just a goofy joke.” And Weezer certainly did make the cover feel like a joke, even getting comedian Weird Al Yankovic to star in the music video.
While a “goofy joke” still has the potential to be fun for both parties, Lukather explains that Cuomo wasn’t very kind to him, personally. “I tried to reach out to this guy and be friendly and it just got weird,” he tells Matt Pinfield.
“I don’t want to get into it, but peace and love,” he concludes. “It was good for them, it was good for us. God bless.”
Lukather has spoken out about Cuomo in the past. Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2020, he said he was met with silence when he tried to chat about the covers.
“I said, ‘Hey, man, isn’t this funny? Whether you like us or not, it’s working out good for both of us,’” he said. “Silence! The cat refused to talk to me! I’m friends with the biggest rock ’n’ roll stars in the world, and this is the only cat that refuses to talk to me!”
“I’m sorry, Rivers,” he continued. “You made a lot of fuckin’ money off this. You should be a little bit more thankful. But I got nothing bad to say about [Weezer]. Some of them were cool, but Rivers really hurt my feelings.”
During the same interview, Toto keyboardist Steve Porcaro also recalled joining Weezer for a one-off TV performance of Africa. He recalled Weezer’s manager telling Cuomo that their cover was getting some serious radio play – and Porcaro “saw Rivers wince.”
“They initially did it as a goof,” he said. “Now they realised they’d have to play the song for a lot longer than they thought they would. This whole business runs on hit records. If you get one, you better be prepared to play it for the rest of your life.”
The post Steve Lukather slams “weird” Rivers Cuomo over Weezer’s Africa cover: “I think he did it to take the piss… and it blew up in his face – now he’s got to play it every night” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
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